Question

What does Orwell's word choice of "scrutinized" imply about the way the citizens of this society are watched? How would the connotation have changed if Orwell had used "watched"

Answer 1

Answer:

The word 'scrutinized' suggests that the government was not just watching the movements of its citizens but was actively looking into the lives of its citizens apart from watching any sort of infraction.

The word 'watched' would have changed the ominous feelings of the sentence.

Explanation:

1984: A Novel is a dystopian novel written George Orwell. The novel is set in the future and centers on the aftermaths of the totalitarian. The society in the novel is ruled by the Party who has employed the Though Police, that persecutes independent thinking.

Orwell has used the word 'scrutinized' to emphasize that the government was not just watching the movements of its citizen but also actively looking into the lives of its citizens. Despite that the government was watching into the lives of its citizens, it was also watching into any sort of infraction.

If Orwell would have used the word 'watched,' it would have changed the ominous feelings of the passage.